Clutching a plastic bag containing his possessions, Marwan makes his way across the border into Jordan, where was helped by United Nations staff

A four-year-old boy separated from his family while fleeing Syria has been found crossing the desert alone.

Clutching a plastic bag containing his possessions, Marwan makes his way across the border into Jordan.

The brave youngster was helped by United Nations staff who managed to reunite him with his worried family.

He is just one of over a million Syrian children who have been forced to leave their homes because of the war.

Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “The journey across the desert can take one day or several weeks.

“It’s very dangerous because there is still fighting going on and it’s the middle of winter so it can be freezing cold at night.

“The journey is long and exhausting, so it’s impossible for a four-year-old to cross the desert by himself.

“We think Marwan may have got lost during the night. At the moment we don’t know anything more.”

On Sunday night Marwan entered Jordan near the sprawling Za’atari camp, which is home to over 100,000 refugees.

The heartbreaking picture was taken by Andrew Harper – the UNHCR’s rep in Jordan.

His team were helping scores of refugees cross the desert when they spotted Marwan.

The UNHCR say there are hundreds of thousands of children in a similar situation.

Andrej added: “The Syria conflict has now been going on for three years and at the moment we are dealing with 2.4 million refugees.

“The important statistic is that over one million of these refugees are children.

“Because they miss out on education we are calling them the ‘lost generation’ of Syria.

“Unfortunately there are lots of Marwans out there.”

The UNHCR – a UN agency which helps refugees, believes 425,000 kids under the age of five have been displaced.

And they have identified over 8,000 child refugees who have been separated from their immediate family.